#sure it can be analysed

[mrligerslair]

People have to be lying to themselves about their media literacy capabilities cause tell me why some people act like they watch media with their eyes closed and ears plugged but still claim to have valid interpretations without any textual evidence

[ulteri0rm0tives]

I still think about my mutuals tag where he said that he thinks Johnny feels so much and so deeply that it literally drove him crazy. And yeah. Just think about it constantly. It's. The statement I associate with him. The first thing I think of when I think of him.

I really, really, really dislike when people paint Johnny as this totally unfeeling asshole. Or at least, I heavily disagree with it. That's not to say he isn't an asshole, he 100% is. He's a jerk to the people around him, and of course there really is no excuse for how he treats people. But explanations =/= excuses.

I feel when people try to paint him that way, it comes from a place that lacks understanding or even an unwillingness to understand. This goes hand in hand where I'll see these people call him an unfeeling asshole while using terms associated with cluster b disorders and using the social weight they carry to demonize him, a very prevalent problem reflected in society and internet pop psychology culture.

They'll take the fact he's a 'narcissistic junkie', and not only at the same time use it to demonize people with NPD, but also drug users. It's just a very lazy way to paint a picture of his characterization, by using loaded terms as a crutch and letting their social weight, using yours and others people's biases, do the job for you. Like man, if you're going to make a critique of his character can we at least actually put some effort behind it.

Like. They think he's a user who's an unfeeling asshole to people just for the sake of being one. They see him engaging in these self endangering, self harming, self sabotaging behaviors and brush it off as nothing more than him being like that simply because he likes it, that he relishes in it even. Simply because he wants and chooses to be like that.

They don't see him using as a way of numbing himself (this especially with the fact drugs are the first thing he goes for when Alt breaks it off with him). They don't see that constant toxic push and pull in his relationships as self sabotage. They don't see the fact him going on that OP was a suicide mission. Literally.

I truly believe he never intended to come back from that mission, evident in his last exchange with Kerry, evident in a LOT of his own lyrics. (Black Dog, Ballad of Buck Ravers.)

Johnny clearly is passionate. He clearly has things he cares about. He clearly feels.

I'd even go so far as to say he genuinely does care about the people in his life, he just simply doesn't know how to show it properly or in a way that's healthy for anyone involved. Even when Alt breaks up with him, and he pushes her away for it, he still ends up chasing after her before she's even left the venue. He still tries to protect her. When Alt gets abducted, and yeah, he's being a leadheaded stubborn idiot about it, he still goes after her.

And even if it's self aggrandizing in a lot of ways, he still cares about her life enough to raid a whole fucking tower for her. Even if it's more in the view of what Arasaka took from him, than what it did to her, he still cares about her in his own way. He still grieves her. He's still broken up when she dies right in front of him, and he still acts out even if it's violent and angry. His grief has ALWAYS manifested this way.

When he sees the headlines about Kerry, he asks V to check up on him, to visit him. He even asks Kerry about it because (I think) it came from a place of genuine worry shown the best way he can show it, a straightforward question and dropping it when he gets an answer, no matter how truthful the answer is. When Kerry gets the idea for a one time reunion, Johnny agrees to it because he thinks 'Kerry needs this'.

I also think people see that he's a very angry person and attribute 'unfeeling' to that. Because to them, to a lot of people, anger isn't a valid emotion nor one with as much value as happiness or sadness. That's it's something less than. Even if anger was all he felt, it's still a feeling. He still feels it. He still feels.

His anger, though it's execution is obviously a problem, it's extremely fucking justified and valid. It's born from the mistreatment of a system that only destroys people's lives. Born from a system that only knows how to take, how to hurt, how to kill.

The same system that took, not just a literal piece of Johnny, but so many pieces of his identity and his life that he literally tries to project himself as an entirely new person to escape this.

Johnny cares about how the system treats people, especially people like him. How it uses people and chews them up and discards them when it's taken all it can from them. Johnny cares so much he becomes not just a voice, but thinks he is- and in a lot of ways he does really become one- a symbol for people like him.

That OP functioned as another rescue mission for Alt, another statement for his ideals, and his blaze of glory to go out on his own terms.

Johnny cares about things. Johnny cares about people. He has feelings. Complicated, convoluted, deeply traumatized feelings. Feelings that are so intense, that it harms him. Feelings that are so intense, that it bleeds from him and harms others, too.

And honestly, I'd say the one and only person he stopped truly caring about was himself. A long, long time ago.

[alchemicaladarna]

[Very long post ahead XD]

You know what, I'm not done talking about tr!ros dying to tr!bad because the themes here, accidental or not, and the implications of those themes, hit so hard. its more like a stab in the heart, to be honest.

Because one of the reasons why tr!bad agreed to kill tr!ros (this is paraphrasing what he said ooc) was because he knew tr!ros thought she had no other options left but to die. He saw that she was suffering so much that she genuinely thought dying would be the better outcome for everyone else. Tr!bad did try to prevent her death, believe it or not. Tr!ros asked him to kill her the day before, so he made a deal to delay the death then told tr!aimsey after. He tried to warn whoever he could that this was happening in the hopes that tr!aimsey or maybe tr!foolish- just anyone, really- can change tr!ros' mind. That maybe, when tr!bad wakes up the next day, tr!ros will call off the deal and forget the whole thing happened. Death is inevitable, but in this instance, even tr!bad, the personification of death, tried to prevent it because even he was hoping for a different outcome. He cared about her enough to not want to kill her. But in the end, it had to be done.

Do you know why this makes me insane? Ros has been broken and has been suffering for so long, even before the Null, and if you look close enough, you can see the times where she just longed for death. And then finally, upon witnessing all the people she cared about suffer endlessly, some of them losing lives because of her, she decided that she must die because it'll be better for everybody else. It's not true, but it was so ingrained in her mind, I don't think there was any amount of convincing or help that could have prevented her from knocking on death's door.

It's like what Bad said: it was either that he kills her in front of all her loved ones, or she goes off and dies alone. Withering away, at a place nobody could find her corpse.

!Bad knows a lot about dying alone, ironically enough. He knows a lot about the kind of death that prolongs suffering. To have your body rot from the inside out; to have your flesh melt off your bones for months on end, no matter how much your loved ones try to heal you. To be alone when your body finally withers away, not because nobody wanted to help you, but because you didn't want help, and it would've been too late to save you. So you die a slow and painful death. In a lavender field. In the middle of nowhere. Calling out your loved ones' names with your final breath, a hint of regret flashing through your mind before it all fades and then you're gone.

You can see why tr!bad claims it to be a kindness, a mercy, that he took tr!ros' life in front of those she loved and cared for. Even though they couldn't prevent her death, at least they were able to spend a little more time with her, and at least they were able to grieve and give her a proper grave. It was the closest thing to comfort that death can provide.

And here's the thing about death: we always ask why it happened, why did it have to take our loved one, what did they do to deserve this, what could you have changed to prevent this? In the end, you can't really blame death itself because it's a force of nature. But it's a bit different this time. This time, death has a face. Death has a name. Death has a physical, mortal manifestation, and eventually it can be hunted down and killed. They stop asking why tr!ros decided to die, and start asking why tr!bad killed ros.

Tr!bad told tr!Zam to ask ros. While that sounds a lot like a threat, I think he also meant it in a "ask ros what her reasons were. Ask her why she came to death's door. Ask her why she suffered and maybe you could begin to understand why she died."

Even though it was tr!ros' own decision to seek death, it's only natural that everyone blames tr!bad because he pulled the trigger, no matter what tr!ros' reasons were. Before they can accept that tr!ros is gone, I think a lot of people might want to exact revenge upon tr!bad. Sadly, that's how grief works- especially since the death felt more like a homicide than a self-orchestrated murder.

It's tragic because people did try to help tr!ros. They loved and cared about her. She was the kingdom's beloved architect- a friend and a part of their family. Even those outside of the kingdom and tr!aimsey cared about her. And it's not that they didn't try to prevent her death either. Another tragic aspect about this is that tr!foolish tried to take her through the server to help her see that there was still so much to live for. There was still so much Life could offer, but she already made a deal with Death, and unfortunately, it was the inevitable outcome for tr!ros, beloved as she was.

[theoldworldsrunnerup]

@deathnotetober day three: task force

Redraw of this:

This is. Technically not finished but I am so sick of looking at this so I’m giving up and posting it

[longlivethewildernessyet]

It is very interesting to me that Even in Arcadia's (the title track and the album, I think) flower seems to be Blackthorn.

Blackthorn has a long, long history in folklore, often associated with witchcraft and magic. It's known as "Mother of the Woods," or "Dark Crone of the Woods," apparently, and was said to have been used for wands and staffs. In the tale of Sleeping Beauty, it's Blackthorn that the prince must fight through. It's also one of those flowers that poets describe their loves like; eyes as dark as a sloe, skin as pale as the flower.

I can see the immediate connection to Sleep Token with magic. Sleep Token's stringent lore seems to often imply a level of magical interference. It would make sense, also, with the teasers put out featuring knights and fantastical creatures, that there would also be witches. It's all looking very Arthurian. I wonder if Morgan le Fay will make an appearance. The love poetry and romantic fairy tales also make sense. Vessel's lyrics are often romantic in nature, even if that romance is tainted by toxicity and pain. He often draws on similar metaphors to old love poetry, too. Dark eyes, red lips, promises of bodily devotion and dedication. Also; "Mother of the Woods," God Mother? Stringent connection, but it's there.

Blackthorn often flowers during cold weather, a phenomenon that occurs after a "false spring," i.e., when winter seems to end but restarts a short time later. This period of cold weather has been called "Black Thorn Winter" by locals.

So whilst it's not unheard of for flowers to bud in cold weather, it's certainly not usual until spring really gets going. Blackthorn, to me, represents survival; it represents enduring winter, literal and proverbial. Vessel's moving from one season to another with Even In Arcadia. Winter to Spring. Blackthorn, with its false springs and Black Thorn Winters and stalwart endurance, is a flower that takes us from winter to spring. Even In Arcadia is following this very same transition.

Its wood is hardy and tough, and grows fast. Its a survivor of a plant and is often used for hedgerows— you cannot drive anywhere in England without seeing it somewhere on the motorway or in a country lane. Its fruit, the sloe, is said to be good for cleansing the blood. The pulp of the fruit's flesh can apparently stick your tongue to the roof of your mouth and your lips together (according to William Cobbett of 150 years ago)! It can also be used to make tonics for digestion and rheumatism.

Again, themes of survival and endurance. It's a very versatile wood, with plenty of uses besides looking absolutely gorgeous (no bias here). With EIA, we're seeing a Vessel who wants to survive, to endure, to emerge, to push past the Winters and False Springs to finally grow into Spring itself. The stark contrast between the hardy, tough purple-black bark and the delicate, snowy white flowers, especially in early spring when there's no leaves budding, also seems to feed into Sleep Token's themes of contrasting pairings. White roses, black doves, anyone? But, I think with EIA and the whole divide between HV and FH, we're actually being steered in the direction of not seeing these contrasted pairs as in competition but in symbiosis. Without the wood, there would be no flower, without the flower, there would be no wood, despite their apparent differences. Sloes being used to cleanse the blood is an interesting one. Sleep Token often references blood as a holy force, as food, as a sexual symbol, as a symbol of pain and torment and trauma. So, cleansing the blood could represent cleaning away (Infinite Baths) the past, the hurt, in order to start again (fruit giving way to rot to make way for new flowers again the following year). Its properties as a healing plant also point to concepts regarding new growth and healing from past illnesses and wounds.

My flower language book provides the following meanings for blackthorn: crone, stabilises emotions, stimulating, hope, joy, dark arts.

Hope and joy!!! Hope and joy everyone!!! I really think (and this is only a theory, a big big "if," so to speak) that EIA is going to be about enduring hardship and finding hope and joy despite the pain, despite past hurt. The final song is Infinite Baths, mysterious as the title is, it's blatantly also about cleansing, starting anew. Blackthorn is a spring flower— it heralds the season of growth and newness.

Bonus:

The hawthorn, which flowers after its leaves have budded (opposite to a blackthorn, which flowers then buds leaves) has a scent that is the exact same chemical as the one released first when animal tissue decays— trimethylamine. I found that out on a guided tree walk, and my first thought was "Vessel would so use that in a song."

The use of natural imagery in EIA's artwork really emphasises the idea of cycles that we're seeing over and over. Nature is inherently cyclical, and we see it in flowering plants the most. Flower, leaf, fruit, rot. Flower, leaf, fruit, rot. Over and over until the plant dies. And it's not negative, it's sustainable. Regenerative. It's growth.

Even in Arcadia may be an album of growth. Of regeneration after the rot.

[xxk3vonicaxx]

All the few people in the WNTTAK fandom out here with their Kevin Khatchadourian X reader fics while I'm over here likee:

(Now forgive while I ramble about this in the tagss)

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

Why We Never See Elendira's Story

In a story that emphasizes the human or otherwise sympathetic aspects to its focal characters, it’s very intriguing that Elendira remains an enigma right up until the very end of her story.

We receive some tantalizing hints that there is much, much more to Elendira than what we’re explicitly shown – asides from her apparent sole interest in witnessing the end of the world (to which she'd prefer to see Knives' chosen ending, but is prepared to act herself if he fails), she looks somewhat resigned when saying that nice men “die so easily”, that no matter what Vash does, humans will “ruin it”, and so on and so forth.

[ID: Two screenshots from Trigun Maximum Volume 11. In the first, over a rocky ground, Elendira says "I liked you better when you had nothing to lose. What a shame." She looks down, somewhat resigned, and continues "I don't like nice men. They die so easily." In the second, she stands, frowning and saying "No matter what Vash the Stampede does... there will always be those..." On a close up of her right eye, she says "...who ruin it." End ID.]

Elendira seems to have little to no faith in humanity, and in that sense, she seems a lot like Knives. Knives, who aims to become more and more powerful, and in the process, severing all meaningful ties he has with others on his quest to ensure no one can take advantage of him or use him. We know, of course, that Knives doesn't quite succeed here... but Elendira has. She is the peak of human (or part human? We never get an answer to her unexplained abilities) capability in speed, skill, and strength. The only reason Livio stood any chance in that fight was due to his incredible regeneration.

(As an interesting aside, she also has an interesting commonality with Vash - what comes to mind is her telling the kids to bury Livio because he "died" trying to protect them. Why does she care about that? Why does it matter? None of the other GHGs do this. This is not important to the point I'm making here but it's just interesting to me. There's very few characters who explicitly make a point of burying the dead.)

The point being, Elendira is the height of strength... and at the top, she is alone.

[ID: A panel from Trigun Maximum Volume 13. Elendira is in the action of dropping her white coat, which she has taken off to reveal an underarmour suit that is almost skeletal in appearance. She looks confident. End ID.]

In a story where characters' motives and pasts are told through their connections with others, through their memories with people they cared for, and through the eyes of the people who care for them...

Vash's story is eventually told in pieces to humanity through Meryl, through Luida, and through his sisters. Rem survives in Vash's memories, and we see the part of her story that young Vash saw, just as we also see his own past from this recollection of her.

Milly is a clarifier and communicator who sees so strongly the sides of Meryl and Vash that they suppress, all that grief and fear, for the sake of remaining steadfast. She is the one whose eyes we see through. It had to be seen to be told. Wolfwood does this too.

The rest of GHGs get some elaboration also. Hoppered is defined through his loss of the woman he cared for in July. Midvalley is defined by his fear and contention with Knives. They also have a dynamic between them that few of the other GHGs shared - and it's likely for this reason we received more elaboration on the two of them than many of the others. But even characters like Rai-Dei, for whom we don't get very much at all, has at least his sunk-cost fallacy explained through the memories of the people he's killed to get to that point.

Chronica's story, though largely removed from the people of No Man's Land, is given definition and stakes through the loss of Domina, and we are told about her incredible determination and strategy she has through her reputation with the Earth fleet.

Legato, desperate to play a singularly important role in Knives' story, tells his own through that lens and that lens only. The moment his life changed was the moment Knives entered it, and that is likely the most important memory to him - Knives is the only meaningful bond he has (sadly for him, this was not reciprocated). Well, an argument can be made for the contentious dynamic he builds with Vash too.

Even Knives, for all that he tried to separate himself from others, is known and seen through his connection with Vash - and his acceptance and unwillingness to fully lose this connection is not only what eventually saves him, but also the reason we, as the audience, know his story so well.

We see characters' stories in Trigun mainly through the bonds they share with others - never the whole story, but the sides that others knew of them.

So, who does Elendira have? Every interaction she has is shallow, dismissive, and exceedingly temporary. Through her dislike of Legato, we get that she may be somewhat bitter about his important status to Knives... but there is no elaboration, because it goes no further than that. Knives calls her directly on the phone, and she is very invested in his vision for the end of the world and intrigued by him... but it goes no further than that. He does not really seem to care about her beyond her effectiveness, and she does not offer any information about herself. Even her allegiance is kind of flimsy. She's only there because she wants to be.

During their final fight, Wolfwood lives on through Livio, through his actions and resolve. It is the teamwork between him and Razlo, in the spirit of Wolfwood, that eventually overpowers Elendira. Amusingly (at least to me), Livio is quite literally never alone, because he always has Razlo - and now, Wolfwood too.

"Yer too strong... and that's why yer gonna lose."

[ID: A screenshot from Trigun Maximum Volume 13. Livio narrates over a shot of his eye, Razlo's eye, and finally, his whole face, with Wolfwood's final vial of serum between his teeth. "...to me... to Razlo... and to him." End ID.]

Elendira has succeeded in separating herself from everyone – she is the most powerful of the GHG, and every battle with her is basically one-sided – but she’s alone, and that’s not only why she loses… it’s also why we never get to know her in any meaningful way.

Because no one knows her. She has no personal connection with anyone. Her motivations never get any clarity. We don’t even know who did her modifications or how she gained her power. Even if she did have someone she cared for in the past, she apparently does not hold onto their memory. And maybe that's the reason she told the kids to bury Livio - not out of respect, but because to her, that is where the past belongs - dead and buried, soon to be joined by the rest of the world and humanity as it all comes to an end.

We never see Elendira’s story… because there is no one from whose eyes we can see it in any capacity.

[4lph4kidz]

the alpha kids' chumhandles are like. such a case of spelling it out for the audience honestly. dirk's chumhandle referencing Plato is very explicitly because he's read that stuff and i can even point to parts of Timaeus i think might have directly formed some of his in-character worldview. roxy's chumhandle referencing gnosticism was easier to write off as more of a wink at the audience than something she is especially knowledgeable about (particularly because the 'nostalgia' is the more overt part of her character) since but her lalondian relationship to fiction and authority is really really obviously elaborating on those gnostic themes in the text i don't know why it didn't click the same way before now

[feelo-fick]

chilaios or something idk ive never heard of these people ever (<- lie)

[daddy-long-legssss]

@uhbasicallyjustmilex said some of the songs on ‘romance’ sound like long lost friends of ‘humbug’ and you are so right.

mahaonthegramophone on ig (who writes incredible arctic monkeys lyrical/album analysis btw) made the comparison between ‘bug’ and ‘joining the dots’.

both are very similar sonically and even the lyrics draw some parallels which she talks more about in this post.

[littencloud9]

i don’t think it’s wrong to feel wary about yingdu chapter and being confused with all the questions it left us. i also think you people are forgetting that this is a prequel

[greasydumbfuck]

feeling really ill about frank but not in the cool way

[cujohcaps]

empyrean’s touch pv

[deus-ex-mona]

im working hard at hardly working just for you my queen~~~~~~

[itsalwaysforyou]

jay not asking coach about letting lonnie onto the team bc he doesn’t want to do anything coach might disagree with…….

[jaggedjot]

It is vital that the visions of Lestat that haunt Louis are seen first and foremost as shards of Louis’ own fractured psyche. These scenes are emotive hallucinations, a visual representation of the way that Louis feels unable to escape his past, as well as how he directly draws on those experiences as he tries to move forward. It is only Lestat in the sense that Louis has cast blended memories of the man to perform the role of Louis’ own doubt, misery and regret.